Virginia T. Valaki of Milford died on May 30 after a long illness. She was 89. Until she retired in 1994, Ms. Valaki was employed as a cryptolinguist at the National Security Agency, where she worked for 40 years. She was an editor of Cryptolog, an agency journal.
Active in the Archeological Society of Maryland, she was an avid traveler, a lover of languages and music, and an enthusiastic photographer. She will be warmly remembered as a loving daughter and sister, a devoted aunt, and a formidable and empathetic colleague.
Ms. Valaki was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended Bay Ridge High School. After graduating from New York’s Hunter College, she went to Washington, D.C., to work for the government. She lived in Washington’s Cleveland Park neighborhood for many years before moving to Connecticut to be closer to her family.
She was the daughter of Katina Lambrakis, a teacher of Greek, born in Koroni, Greece, and George Valaki, a pharmacist, born in Jerusalem.
Ms. Valaki is survived by a niece, Alexandra Yurkovsky of Berkeley, C.A., and two nephews, Andrew Yurkovsky of Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Christopher Yurkovsky of New Haven. She was predeceased by her sister, Anthea I. Yurkovsky, and by a third nephew, John P. Yurkovsky.
A private funeral was held at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, Racebrook Rd., Orange. Burial was at King’s Highway Cemetery, Cherry St., Milford. The Smith Funeral Home, Milford, had charge of arrangements. The family asks that a charity contribution in Ms. Valaki’s memory be made instead of flowers.
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